Take A Stand

Sen. Tom Harkin said the following this week on his support for censure-

"I’m embarassed that more Democrats haven’t lined up on this. I mean, for crying out loud, the Republicans, they can see fit to impeach… IMPEACH a president, Bill Clinton for lying about having an extramarital affair. But they won’t stand for a censure. The Democrats don’t have the guts to stand up to censure a President who misled us, who lied to the American people, who broke the law and violated the Constitution of the United States in spying on the American people. I tell you, we’ve got to get some more backbone to a lot of Democrats. We need to hear from people. We need to hear from people. The American people need to know, and to show support for this resolution."

A-men.

On this note, The Nation has a great editorial on this issue.

Meanwhile, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is angry at the White House's stonewalling on the investigations into the program. Sounds like the chairman is trying to undermine the war on terror!:
Senior House Republican criticizes Gonzales-
Sensenbrenner accuses attorney general of ‘stonewalling’ on eavesdropping

And Reuters has a report on the continuing saga of how the Pentagon has been keeping records of peaceful political activists... Of course I'm sure the President isn't abusing his NSA program with that kind of activity (*cough*):
Pentagon says improper data in security database

It's not as if the Attorney General gave the thumbs up for warrantless domestic spying... Wassat? He did? Oh.

Finally, considering what we learned yesterday about the President's political use of national security information and his hypocrisy on leaks, etc, I would that hope that more Senators would be fired up to stand up to this President and tell him he's gone too far. The President can't make up/interpret the law at will. The Democrats who were very vocal on the leak issue yesterday (ie. Dick Durbin, Harry Reid) are those who abandoned Feingold on his censure stand. They are right to take a stand on the former, but they should fight for the latter as well. As the above-linked Nation editorial concludes-

The opposition party that too rarely opposes appears to stand for nothing. There does not seem to be any principle, not even respect for the rule of law, that motivates most Democrats. As such, they come off as the party that will compromise on anything and everything in order to win elections. In so doing, cynical Democrats create another undeserved opening for Republicans who have argued, time and again and with considerable success, that Bush, Cheney and their Congressional allies may not always get things right but at least they operate from a place of conviction.

Democrats now have another opportunity to change that- Stand with Feingold. Censure the President.